Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been using my space in this column to talk about some of the different stereotypes we see around us all the time. The first week, I addressed the myth of Planned Parenthood, and last week, I looked at what it means to be — and appear to be — healthy. (Hence The White T-Shirt; you can wear it and appear to be all sorts of things.)
This past week, I thought I might have some fun in the process, so I took a little road trip to everyone’s favorite state school, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, in time for the Super Bowl.
Now, hockey aside, UMass – or ZooMass – does not exactly have the best reputation here on Boston University’s campus. Just last month, The Daily Free Press ran an article saying:
“While students at University of Massachusetts at Amherst have complained lately about an increased campus police presence in their dorms, the Boston University Police Department said it would not implement a similar level of police patrol.”
The comparison to BU just barely falls short of saying, “We’re not as rowdy as you, you crazy party kids, and therefore we certainly don’t need to have the police in Warren Towers making sure we don’t break things and defenestrate couches.”
Even the widely circulated Amherst-area newspaper, The Springfield Republican, ran a headline last week that read, “Wary UMass prepares for Super Bowl.”
The article cites the Dec. 15 riot after the UMass football team lost the NCAA Division I-AA title game as a cause for concern come Super Bowl time. After the December riots, more than 70 students received reprimand from the school, including expulsion and removal from on-campus housing. So, I knew my life could possibly be at stake that weekend.
My purpose in going to Amherst to begin with, however, was to instead see what UMass has to say about BU.
I arrived in town on Friday night around 11:45 p.m. The bars close at 1:00 a.m., and by 1:30 a.m., I had already witnessed someone being arrested for disorderly conduct at the pizza shop next door and for beginning a massive snowball fight outside the bar – where I was lucky enough to get pegged by two rock-hard snowballs before calling it a night.
Well, Friday was a bust, but Saturday? Saturday was not.
Out at the local bar called Charley’s, I was fortunate enough to chat with a mild UMass senior named Bess, who transferred to Amherst from the Berklee College of Music in Boston because she simply could not stand being confined in such a small school.
When I told her I attend BU, she gave me a look as if to say, “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” Surprised, I pressed her to tell me more of what she thought about BU.
“Well,” she said with a shake of her head, “I bet it sucks to be around so many dumb rich kids. And you have to pay so much to do it.”
Was she serious? Yes.
Compare our $33,330 tuition to their $19,317 (out of state) tuition each semester and you have to admit they’re being frugal about the college experience. But we’re dumb? Really?
Afterwards, I got to talking to a guy who was also a senior at UMass. Literally mention BU in Amherst – you don’t even have to say you go there – and you get laughed at. It turns out, it’s pretty much decided that BU kids pay too much money and get literally nothing more than UMass kids. We’re a “homogeneous” mass that dresses the same and works very little to squeak by with a piece of paper with the BU insignia. Basically, we look like the idiots to them.
And yet, we think they’re irresponsible party animals, and they think we’re stupid rich kids.
Similar opinion, different price tag.
Sarah Chandonnet, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, is a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press. She can be reached at sjchando@bu.edu.
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